FIGURES FOUNDED ON CONTRAST.
SECTION III. 1. The Theory of Contrant. The mind is affected by a change from one state of consciousness to another. The greatness and sudden¬ness of the change determine the degree in which the mind is affected. Thus we are shocked by a sudden transition from darkness to a bright light, or from hil¬arious joy to profound grief. This effect upon the mind is owing to the principle of contrast. It is a law of the mind that qualities contrasted are rendered more striking. If, for example, two pictures, one beautiful, the other ugly, are seen at the same time, both the loveliness of the one and the repulsiveness of the other are magnified by the comparison. Contrast is particu¬larly adapted to the exhibition of minute differences. If we hold a candle between us and the noon-day sun, the fornier will appear dark when compared with the effulgence of the latter. If a piece of black cloth be laid upon a substance truly black, the black cloth will appear relatively gray. So when two thoughts or emo¬tions are brought into close proximity, and especially when they are set in opposition by a balanced senten¬tial structure, the distinction between them will be greatly magnified by the contrast. Now, as the jewel¬ler displays the brilliancy of his wares by exhibiting them on a black and non-reflecting back-ground, so the writer may add attractiveness to his conceptions, and economize the interpreting powers of his reader, by employing the principle of contrast. 2. Essentials of a Perfect Contrast. A perfect contrast requires opposition or contrariety. It also requires that the objects contrasted belong to the same generic class. We cannot contrast heat and light, virtue and pleasure, because they belong to dif ferent categories. The proper opposite of virtue is vice. These belong to the same category, since they are both states of moral character. Heat and cold are in contrast, bk.vause they are states of temperature. Hence a perfect contrast requires that the objects con¬trasted be of the same generic class, but the most widely different of that class. 8. Figures Founded on Contrast. Contrast gives rise to two classes of figures : (1) those in which there is an expressed contrast, and (2) those in which a contrast is implied. I. EXPRESSED CONTRAST. The figures in which two expressed ideas are con¬trasted are Antithesis and Climax. 1. Antithesis. (1) The Nature of Antitheels.—Antithesis is a form of expression which impresses an idea upon the mind by bringing opposites into one conception. Thus, in the sentence, "Gold cannot make a man happy any more than rags can make him miserable ;" "Gold" and "rags," " happy " and "miserable" are set in opposi¬tion, in order to give a double illustration of the senti¬ient, "Happiness is not dependent on what we pos¬ess." The resultant idea derived from both members of an antithesis is, in force, not unlike a conclusion that has been established by both negative and affirma¬tive proof. (2) The Natural Form of Antitheele.—The form of the antithesis is naturally, but not necessarily, the balanced sentence. This form of sentential structure, renders the opposition more evident to the eye or ear, thus insuring the perception of the antithetical effect. Thus, in the sentence, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy ;" the opposition of like parts of speech, "faithful" and "deceitful," "wounds" and "kisses," "friend" and "enemy," and the corresponding length of the two members, give additional force to the antithesis of thought. The structure of the sentence has much to do with the effect of the following stanza : " In Naze there's nothing so becomes a man As mild behavior and humanity; But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Let us be tiger8 in our fierce deportment." Sometimes the antithesis lies almost wholly in the structure of the sentence. Thus, in Pope's well-known comparison of Homer and Virgil commencing, "Ho¬mer was the greater genius, Virgil the better artist ;" there is no contrast of opposition between "genius" and "artist," " man " and "work," " profusion " and "magnificence." Frequently there is real antithesis without the balanced structure. Thus the innocence of Lucretia and the violence of Sextus are contrasted in these lines : "Now look ye where she lion. That beauteous flower, that innocent moat rose, Torn up by ruthless violence." (3) Laws of Antithogia.—The nature of antithesis renders easy the deduction of two laws : (1) since the balsnced form displays the contrast most clearly, inter¬preting power is economized by uniformity in the length and structure of the contrasted members ; and (2) since the antithetical form becomes monotonous from this uniformity, antitheses should not be very frequent. 2. Climax. Climax, or the rhetorical ladder, consists in such an Arrangement of ideas in a series as to secure a gradual increase of impressiveness. It is based on the principle pf contrast. Antithesis contrasts objects by bringing them together in opposition ; climax contrasts objects by exhibiting their degrees of difference through a se¬ries of intermediates. "It is observed by all travelers who have visited the Alps, or other stupendous moun¬tains, that they form a very inadequate notion of the vastness of the greater ones, till they ascend some of the less elevated, (which yet are huge mountains), and thence view the others still towering above them. And the mind, no less than the eye, can not so well take in and do justice to any vast object at a single glance, as by several successive approaches and repeated corn¬parisons." * Cicero has used the climax with great effect in his "Oration against Verres." Withholding the real crime for a moment, he refers to the atrocity of lesser offenses, thus magnifying the guilt of Verres by a se¬ries of contrasts :—" It is an outrage to bind a Roman citizen ; to scourge him is an atrocious crime ; to put him to death is almost parricide ; but to CRUCIFY him —what shall I call it ?" II. IMPLIED CONTRAST. The figures in which an expressed idea is contrasted with an implied opposite are EPIGRAM, INTERROGA¬TION and IRONY. 1. Epigram. The epigram, like the antithesis, is based on an oli¬view; contrariety. Primarily the word meant an inscrip¬tion on a monument. It is used also to signify any terse or pointed expression. It is here employed in a special sense, to designate those forms of expression in which there is a contradiction between the real and the apparent moaning ; as, " Verbosity is cured by a wide vocabulary ;" "Conspicuous for absence;" "Some are too foolish to commit follies." That such apparent contradictions have any tend, ency to economize interpreting power is• not clear. They possess two qualities which in part compensate for their contradictory character. They are necessarily brief, so that the mind is not confused with a compli¬cated structure ; and, appearing to violate a law of thought, they stimulate to unusual interest. A series of epigrams rapidly delivered would be unintelligible. A style too epigrammatic is generally wearisome. Such a style is better adapted to be a depository of thought than to be a medium of communication, since, when the sense is once grasped, the brevity and paradox of the form of expression fix it in the memory. The epi¬gram, therefore, is the natural garb of the proverb. 2. Interrogation. An interrogation may be a part of plain speech. Ii becomes figurative when it is an affirmation in the form of a question. Thus, "Shall not the Judge of all Oa earth do right ?" is meant to be an emphatic affirma¬tion that He will do right. The reason of the empha¬sis in the interrogative form is obvious. It has been shown that differences are more evident when contra¬ries are brought into one conception. The interroga¬tion forces upon the attention at once both an affirm¬ative and a negative answer. Thus the affirmative and negative answers are brought into contrast, and the affirmative is admitted from the impossibility of the negative. 8. Irony. Irony also involves the principle of contrast. It consists in putting an assumption in the place of a known truth, that the truth may be made more im¬pressive by the contrast. A single example, from Whittier, will illustrate this " What has the gmy-haired prisoner done? Has murder stained his hands with gore? Not so. His crime's a fouler one— God made the okt man poor." Here the poet, pleading for the abolition of im prisonment for debt, represents poverty as a crime. That it is not a crime to be born poor is self-evident, but its guiltlessness is made the clearer by being brought into the same view with murder, from which it is so different. The contrast is heightened by rep- resenting poverty as a fouler crime than murder. Hence we may conclude, that irony depends upon the contrast between the truth and an assumption. Con¬clusive proof of this is found in the fact, that a state¬ment is not recognized as ironical if its untruthfulness is not apparent.